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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Developer in Paris : Day 1

It was around 7 in the morning when I landed and it was still around 6hrs after the normal checks that I still had till my connecting flight was there to take me to my final destination. It didn't help that the airport (part of) was under renovation, restricting my otherwise access area. No, I wasn't allowed to move out of the airport due to some rules as my wait time wasn't as much.

That was a few years back and the scenes obviously changed this time around. Paris is open for a much wider visit; both in terms of space and time. Landing as early as 6 in the morning is not a good idea, unless you already spent around 10 or so hours in the air in the last half a day. The first feel of the city? Just a little cold, enough to let my body and mind know there is a switch required. From 30 degrees to nearly zero(feels like a little below the actual, with the wind) was what my body had to adjust to. Out of the airport and a quick taxi, helped to reach the hotel for some quick rest, especially a nice shower!!Beginning the week long stay on Sunday is a good option. Lets you relax and roam around and especially settle down getting familiarity with the streets around. So once we were ready

to leave the hotel for a walk and take something for lunch, it was time to head on the roads. In any city its not difficult to find some food, even if you are new to the place. In Europe it becomes difficult if you are a vegetarian. Luckily we found an Indian restaurant, unlucky that there was time for it to open and we (me and colleagues) had plans. We decided to try the restaurant for dinner and settle for some veg pizza for the lunch.In another hour we found ourselves on the road to the city subway. A little help on the direction to the museum Louvre on the counter responsible for tickets and we were on the subway to a place called Concorde, where we were told to change to another direction (metro line) for our final destination, the museum. I found the subway pretty similar to what I have been used to in my time in the US. The travel was fast and it wasn't more than may be 20 minutes that we found ourselves inside the museum. In fact the entry was a bit embarrassing as the exit from subway and the entry to museum was such short lived that we found ourselves asking for the museum while we just entered its boundary ;)

A huge museum that has a lot to offer in terms of some history and wonderful paintings and reminiscence and what not. Its so huge that you may need complete 3 days at least to have visited all the parts of the castle look alike place. For some jet legged and tired visitors, it was good enough that we covered nearly 1/3rd of the place in a few hours. Disappointed that nearly all the descriptions were in French and we had hardly anything to understand from a language perspective. What we saw was worth the tiredness!A few hours later we decided it was time we reached the hotel for some rest and sleep. The last nearly 24hrs have been very tiring and without much sleep. When we came back I decided to take the time to chat with my family back home and keep myself away from sleep or else the jet-leg strikes. A couple more hours and the time for dinner. Some Indian food here was a welcome pleasure at the end of a tiring day. We decided it was time to retire to our respective rooms. The next day had some good things in store for us:)